I think most of the filmmakers I admire – Doc and Narrative alike – are ADHD. That is, have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Enough so that it should maybe be called attention-deficit hyperactivity superpower instead…
I just saw this article:
http://www.alternet.org/adhd-brains-are-most-creative-why-do-we-treat-it-disability?page=0%2C1
It postulates just that – that ADHD may have some incredible positive sides, and that our educational industrial complex ought to accommodate. It makes sense to me. Many of my idols had great difficulty fitting in to a 9-5 educational model: Jerry Garcia, Joe Lex, Albert Einstein, Alan Steinbach, Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Ansel Adams, Whoopi Goldberg, Paris Hilton…
OK, not Paris. Whats up with her?
Anyhow, it makes sense, right? Attention flitting back and forth… The ability to hyper-focus on something you are really interested in. Very diverse interests… It fits filmmaking perfectly. Think about what a filmmaker needs to include in her repertoire:
- Idea development from the earliest, ill-formed stages.
- Business plan development, as in Filmmakers and Financing.
- Crowd funding.
- Crew development.
- Research.
- Camera operation.
- Audio recording in the field.
- Editing.
- Post production – VFX, color correction, audio mixing…
- Social media promotion.
- Film marketing.
Geez! What a diverse list of skills and activities. So it makes sense, right? ADHD is an adaptive way of being for a filmmaker.
But where does Ritalin fit in?
8 responses to “Are Filmmakers all ADHD?”
So true, but… can’t this be said of so many professions? Take science for example: scientists, like filmmakers, are “Jacks or Janes of all trades”. Just like anyone passionate about their ideas, we must start with a vision, convince stakeholders to ‘crowd-fund’ us with grant money, hyper-focus on a singular aspect of our vision until it’s reduced into a succinct, fundamental question, then develop a narrative wherein we can attempt to answer that question (i.e. an experiment), then report our findings in a way that editors and reviewers find appealing (i.e. marketing)! What I think may give those of us with ADHD (severe in my case) an edge is that combined ability to hyperfocus yet remain distractably open to novel ways of thinking. So yeah, having ADHD could perhaps be an asset, but only if it cohabits a brain that also possesses good measures of intelligence and discipline!!
Are you ADHD? Did I space that out?
Aspi, too.
The more I read about the brain, the more I think there’s no such thing as neurotypical. But then I get distracted…
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